Formula 1 announced Friday that the German Grand Prix has been taken off the calendar. It reduces the 20-race schedule to 19 races. The first race of the year was last weekend at Australia and won by Lewis Hamilton.
We're going to go out on a limb and say an in-season race cancellation over rights fees is something NASCAR won't be doing in 2015. It's already happened to the IndyCar Series. IndyCar was scheduled to open the season in Brazil on March 8, but race organizers announced in January that the race wouldn't happen.
The German Grand Prix normally alternates venues every year between the Nurburgring and Hockenheim. It was the former's turn to host this season, but with new ownership, was hesitant to pay the fees to host the race, scheduled for July 19.
The hesitation put the onus on Hockenheim if there was to be a German Grand Prix, it didn't agree on rights with the FIA to host the 2015 race. Hockenheim is again slated to host in 2016.
The saga over the race is the latest in an already dramatic year for F1. And we say that without any reference towards Mercedes' dominace at Australia and likely dominance of the 2015 season.
Giedo Van der Garde sued his team, Sauber, to drive in the Australian Grand Prix. A Swiss court sided with him, saying he should be in the car after he served as a reserve driver in 2014 and brought sponsorship with him. However, after talking with the team, he dropped his pursuit of either the seat of Marcus Ericsson or Felipe Nasr and agreed to a settlement that paid him $16 million. It's unclear how much or if any of that amount will go to the sponsors that van der Garde brought to the team to try to get the ride.
Manor Marussia, formerly Marussia last season, didn't even turn a lap at Australia, meaning 18 cars were scheduled to participate in the race. Marussia, along with the now-defunct Caterham team, had severe financial troubles at the end of 2014. It's the team Jules Bianchi was driving for when he skidded off track at Suzuka and crashed into a tractor. Bianchi is still unconscious from the crash.
And while 18 cars were scheduled to start the race, two broke before the race even began. Kevin Magnussen's McLaren Honda had issues and so did Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull Renault. Lotus Renault driver Pastor Maldonado crashed on the first lap while teammate Romain Grosjean's car had problems immediately upon the start and was forced to retire.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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